Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 16.djvu/937

 POSTAL CONVENTION WITH BELGIUM. Dncmznnn 21, 1859. 903 statements and accounts prepared by the General Post Office in Washington, according to forms annexed, marked C and D; and having been P, 9,0 examined, compared, and settled by the General Post Office iii Belgium, ”’ p' ° the balance shall be paid without delay by that Department which shall be found indebted to the other. If the balance is in favor of Belgium, it shall be paid in Belgium; and if in favor of the United States, it shall be paid over by Belgium at Washington, or to the General Post Office at London to the credit of the United States, as the Postmaster General of the United States shall elect. ARTICLE XIX. Letters which, from any cause whatever, cannot be B°*¤¤¤¤f ¤¤· delivered, shall be reciprocally returned at the close of each quarter, gvmwn after the expiration of a proper period to edect their delivery to the person addressed, and for the same amount of postage originally charged by the sending office, which shall be allowed in discharge of the account of the office to which they were sent. These returns of postage are to be claimed in a bill made up agreeably to forms annexed, marked E and F, Q1?"' Pp' °u' which is to accompany such dead letters. o Newspapers which are refused, or which become dead in the Post Offices D·=·¤d ¤¤W•P¤» of either country, are not to be returned. Fgfrgggmh Awrronn XX. Letters misdirected or missent, or which may require Missentlsttcrs the prepayment of postage, shall be. reciprocally returned without delay gc? ’°*·“'°°'I through the respective offices of exchange, and credit taken in the letter bill for the same, at the weight and postage originally charged upon them. In respect to letters addressed to persons who have changed their residence, whatever may be their origin, they shall be respectively returned charged with the postage which was to have been paid by the person ad— dressed, less the inland postage of the country from which sent. ARTICLE XXI. The evidence of the prepayment of letters shall bein T5¤**¤*¤,s•:! red ink, on the right hand upper comer of the face of the letter, and all ;:u.;;l°°&{,_ °' letters, without distinction, shall bear the stamp of the mailing office on ’ their face, and that of the receiving office on their back. The evidence of prepayment shall be represented thus: Letters originating in the United States and paid to their destination in Belgium shall be stamped with the word ‘* PA1D." Letters originating in Belgium and paid to their destination in the United States shall be stamped “P. D.," (paid to destination.) Letters of every other origin, despatched from either country by virtue of the stipulations of Article X., and the prepayment of which is rendered obligatory to a certain point within either country, shall be stamped “P. F." (paid to the frontier.) The manner in which letters, paid or unpaid, are to be sent or received shall be designated by the exchange offices, on each letter, by means of a stamp bearing the words “Am: Packet " or “Br. Packet/’ accordingly as they are transported by one or the other, in such manner as that the amount of credit to be allowed to the British Post Officc for dead letters returned can be shown. Anrrcmc XXII. The exchange offices of the Post Office of Belgium Pcsabnlsnt Shall state upon their post bills for the London office the number of single EEE2fog5m rates for letters, as well as of the weight of newspapers and articles of printed matter contained in each.of the mails intended for the United States orlice ; and they shall, in like manner, state, in the receipt bills addressed to the said London office, the number of single rates for letters, as well as the weight of newspapers and articles of pr1nted·matter, found in the mails from the United States office intended for Belgium. · ARTICLE XXIII. In the event of a direct line or lines of steamships _Post¤geincas• between the United States and Belgium being established, there shall be B,£;_”;£ tt direct exchange of mails by such line of steamers between the respec- ,,,,,;,],,;,,,4, tive exchange offices of Antwerp on the one side, and New York and Boston on the other side. of the international correspondence between the